The FWLS Ixodida was one of the second block of Zechetinu-class corvettes to be launched by the Free Worlds League between 3059[1] and 3067.[2] More than half the fleet of Zechetinus in service to the League had been secretly infiltrated by personnel loyal to the Word of Blake and promptly defected to the Blakists during the Jihad;[3] the Ixodida was one such WarShip.[4]

It was subsequently confirmed that the Blakists had renamed the Ixodida the WoBS Dark Light;[4] serving alongside two Pocket WarShips as a task force in August 3072, the Dark Light appeared in the Markesan system. Whatever the Blakist plans, the three-ship task force found itself swiftly engaged by AeroSpace Fighters from the Fourth Crucis Lancers as it and the transports and JumpShips the task force were escorting attempted to deploy from the L1 LaGrange point.[5]

As the fighters from the Crucis Lancers destroyed the two Pocket WarShips a pair of Fox-class corvettes, the FSS Admiral Michael Saille and the FSS Brest jumped to the L1 LaGrange point from a hidden point within the Markesan system and engaged the Dark Light, which had begun to regain the initiative against the Crucis Lancer forces. The Blakist transports made a hasty retreat back to their JumpShips as the two AFFS corvettes disabled and then boarded the Dark Light.[5]

The identity of the Dark Light as the WarShip captured by the AFFS in the Markesan system became public in February 3075 when Princess-Regent Yvonne Steiner-Davion presented the Dark Light to Devlin Stone, leader of the anti-Blakist allied coaltiion as a gift. The Dark Light had been renamed the FSS Excalibur and re-crewed with a veteran crew of AFFS personnel.[4][6][7]